Collecting refuse once every fortnight (max 4 bags) - how do I manage this?

[morningpaper]

Our Council is bringing in a new rubbish scheme from October (when dd2 is due) whereby we can have a maximum of 4 black sacks every fortnight - the rest should be recycled.

I remember when dd1 was tiny we had ONE SACK of nappies a week. I can't face starting off with washables, it's too much stress with that horrible newborn poo, although I used them from about 6 months before.

I'm all in favour of the new refuse schemes, but how are other families coping with the new rubbish 'rules'?

we have had the new wheely bins that fit 4 bags but it wasn't enough what with nappies etc, we have now got a family sized one which is slightly bigger so that helps a bit. you can apply for them from your local council

Can't help on the nappies front, but (assuming you don't have plastic recycling), use sharp scissors to cut your milk cartons into flat sides.

What are they recycling - glass, plastic, paper, garden waste? If so that should cover most of your rubbish, just leaving you with the nappies and a few other bits and bobs.

Are they not bringing in wheelie bins?
We have 3 bins one normal rubbish, one recycling and one grass and glass bin.
They get collected alternatee fortnights. WE manage fine except on birthdays or xmas when the recycling bin gets very full.
To have the bags out for two weeks could lead to odors, heaven knows our bin stinks when we open it in high summer heat.
Def ask for a bin if you cna get one

Reduce the amount of packaged things you buy, you may even end up eating a bit healthier though, I know, it's a lot of extra work.

I go out nearly every day or at least every other day and chuck nappies out in public bins. I think they are emptied daily.

mp - where are you? 4 bags a fortnight!

I've been really pleased by our council's recycling systems and find I'm throwing away far less as a result.
We're a family of six and we don't even fill a small wheelie bin a week.
I find the idea of landfill building up year on year really chilling.

My council is happy to provide as many recycle boxes as you request. The only limits are on the wheelies.

I do wash nappies and and am horrified to think of all those nappies in landfill. (God! A sack a week? ) Sorry, but I am.
I put most nappies and pants in with the normal daily wash so not too much extra work.

I knew a woman who was radical about waste. She used to separate packaging from actual goods at the supermarket after paying, and leave the packaging for them to dispose of.
I'd never have the guts to do it but I thought 'good on her'. I really resent having to take home all that extra packaging.

We also compost our vegetable matter in a closed compost bin in the garden. (Many councils will provide these cut price in the interests of recycling.

You could put a sign on your door saying 'Royal Mail only please' to stop junk being delivered.

Also, stamp hard on everything you're going to put in the bin to make it as flat as poss.

Reading back my post sounds preachy but our careless dumping of dirt into the land is one of my bug bears.

spidermama - how many different kinds of recycling boxes do you have then?

I'm struggling with a normal size wheelie bin for a family of 5.

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Have steps to the road so can't use a wheeliebin.

I can see I'm going to be a hardcore bitch with early potty training again.

I've done that with the packaging at the supermarket. Only dared to do it with their own brand stuff though - can't really blame them for what other manufacturers do.

morningpaper - this will not be as bad as you think. I personally always used old fashioned terry nappies as I also preferred to wash them than fill up land sites. Other than that I was never any good at recycling.

However when the council introduced recycling I thought like you we would never survive for a fortnight, however we are really improving with our waste.

We have a green wheely bin for rubbish that can't be recycled. We have blue bin for paper, cans, newspapers etc (huge list of things that can go in)

Brown bin for garden refuse and black box for glass.

You are given a comprehensive list by the council of what can be recycled.

We are a family of 6 so requested a second green and blue bin when it started. I now find that in the fortnight we do not use the second green bin now.

Where do you think the packaging ends up if you leave it at the supermarket? In a landfill! At least if you take it home it stands a chance of being recycled.

I take all my boxes, plastic trays and bottles into DSs school for the junk area (no easy plastic recycling here yet). It still ends up in a landfill but it has a new life as a space rocket first.

Assumedname .... It's normally one black box, though I've ordered and extra one, which goes out fortnightly. We have to sort out the contents and put things into it in different bags.

MP - if they don't pick up cardboard and plastics is there somewhere near where you can take them? Our council won't pick up plastic bottles because of the bulk but there are recycling bins in town for them. Can some of the cardboard go in the compost?
We still have our bins picked up every week, and the recycling once a fortnight, but I'd be happy to see it change. At the moment with all the recycling now in place we have less than a bin bag a week to go out, but ds2 has cloth nappies, and ds3 due in September will go straight into cloth as well so we don't have the nappy problem.

The point is, soupy, to put pressure on manufacturers and retail outlets to use less of it.

Oooh they don't take cardboard and pastics? I would struggle with that.

No Soupy - the cardboard packaging left in a supermarket gets recycled. Certainly did at the one I left it at anyway, I worked for the company that had the disposal contract.

There is an out-of-town plastics recycling and cardboard can be taken to the dump but that seems a bit mad.

At the mo I have an incinerator and burn the cardboard when it starts filling up the hallway, but it's annoying.

Can you not recycle cardboard at the tip?

We have no kerbside recycling collection as we are too rural at the mo, though it should be implemented in the next year.
We take all recycloing to Tesco or the tip. Yes, it is a little more work, but I feel strongly enough to do it. We just take it when we do the weekly shop. And I am more careful of what packaging is used.

This scheme started in my area last year, It does'nt mean they will only take 4 bags of refuge a fortnight, it means they will only supply you with 4 black refuse sacks a fortnight.

We buy our own black bags and get through about 5 a week as well as the recycling bags, check with your local council that these are the rules, I imagine they are otherwise there would be an uproar.

we have fortnightly collections.

I have w heelie bin and my neighbour uyses the refuse sacks (ours are purple)

alternate weeks we have a recycling collection.

pppppsssssssst, I will let you into a secret. I live in a terraced house and if i have any 'left over' black bags. i sneak out early in the morning of collecvtion and sneak it all into other p[eoples bins

This is going to be a problem for us soon too..and the worst thing is we are on the third floor in a small flat with no outside space at all, and the recycling boxes will completely block up oour hall..not to mention having to haul them down all the stairs. i'm all for recycling, but we just can't do it.

No problems here at all, we used to completely fill one black wheely bin a week.

Now we have a green bin (recycling) and a black bin (for everything else) (oh and a brown bin for garden rubbish).

We Just managed to fill one black bin a fortnight now (and we've got nappies too). The recycling bin is usually only 3/4 full when it's emptied every 2 weeks, - althougn most of that stuff 'condenses' better than the black bin stuff.